The best election data EVER.

I am a political junkie.

Political junkie I am a.

Junkie political a am I.

A political junkie I am.

You get the idea.

So it will be not a huge surprise to discover that I spent part of the other evening trawling the internet looking for data and maps relating to the recent German Federal election.

I stumbled upon a treasure trove of insane gorgeousness, the finest art I had found since falling in love with 'Bowsprit'.

Check these out!

                          

With absolute respect and delight to the team at Die Zeit, Lisa Rienermann, Anna Lena Schiller and Sylke Gruhnwald.

Town Hall

Just attended a meeting of the local council.

Me, FRD, about 200 other angry townsfolk.

We went to put our opinions across, to ask questions and to make our elected officials decidedly uncomfortable about one of their less than great ideas.

We didn't get all the answers, we found out a few new facts but we came away feeling energised to go to the next stage. At various points I had to employ the Alistair Campbell tactic of squeezing my finger to aleviate anger.

The mayor smirked and was not at his best. He came across as arrogant and dismissive. He was absolutely not enjoying this. I have to admit, we were. It was a good display of people power.

I was proud of my town.

Schlesinger

In between books I turn to the journals of Arthur Schlesinger Jnr. These are the dates I turn to first.

1968. RFK's candidacy and assasination

1968 Humphrey v Nixon.

1980 Carter v Reagan.

2000 Gore v Bush connundrum.

1958 First meetings with the Kennedys.

1972 Nixon v McGovern.

1973 My birth (Schlesinger doesn't mention this, he's more concerned about Watergate)

1976 Carter's candidacy.

1997 Any reference to Blair's landslide in the UK.

Ed

For a moment I thought that he had been born in the 1970s.
For a moment I thought that the political world had found it's first major player born in the 1970s.
For a moment I thought that the moment in my own life had come, That moment when the political world catches up with you, when you are no longer young. The sporting world passed me by when Michael Owen debuted for England, I knew I would never play for my country.

Then I looked more closely and learned that he was born in the 1960s (just!)
He is younger than my brother (he's younger than his own brother)
My generation?

Electoral strategy

OK, looking like a hung parliament.
High turnout turning the count into a slow one.
Twin babies asleep upstairs.

I'm going to turn in, if the exit polls are to be believed, it's not the next couple of hours that will prove interesting but the next couple of days. By the time I wake at 5.30am the results will still be coming in and deals being struck.

Sshhhh...

I wasn't here in 2005.
I'd forgotten about the beautiful silence that engulfs a British General election day.

All campaigning must halt as polls open at 7am.

All media outlets turn to alternative topics (a lengthy interview with Sir Paul MacCartney about vegetarianism was my favourite)as they are barred from mentioning the obvious.

It's a magisterial calm.

At 10pm the polls will close and then.


BANG!

Hours of results and punditry, interviews, arguments, analysis and post mortem.

I love it!

Decision time

Ok, tomorrow is the General Election.

What to do?

I'm a bit confused.

For several reasons.

Actually I'm a bit confused for one main reason and it's nothing to do with a posh bloke called Dave.
For the past 37 years I have either lived in, or been emotionally connected to, a delightful area called 'South Norfolk'. It's been tory since 1950 so it's not even a political attachment. I've always enjoyed throwing my Labour or Lib Dem vote into the opposing wind of toriness. But more than that, I just love being from, and right now living in, SOUTH Norfolk.
I know who my MP is, I know he's going to be my MP until he dies. He even knows who I am, in a very small, met him twice, wrote to him once, sort of a way.

South Norfolk is my kind of place.

Well all that has changed since some gerrymandering civil servants decided that I wasn't 'south' enough and that my entire town should be moved into a new constituency called 'Mid Norfolk'. A bunch of candidates I don't know, a playing field I'm unfamiliar with, lumped in with other, lesser market towns such as Watton and Dereham?
I looked online to find out about tactical voting. MId Norfolk did not even register on the site. I thought South Norfolk was a tory stronghold, Mid Norfolk is bluer than the disinfectant in Sam-Cam's downstairs loo!

Another reason to be mildly perplexed (and this carries on from the new constituency rant) is that I'm not sure how best to use my vote.

Should I vote Labour?

Surely their time is up?
Surely Brown has blown it?
Surely time to get over my emotional attachment to Clement Atlee And Nye Bevan?

but... What about the economy? I actually think things might have been alot worse with somebody else in charge and have half a mind to think that they might be the best to keep things slowly improving.


Should I vote LIb Dem?

Done this before, it seems like their time, would be great to boost their national percentage and give them more credibility with the other two parties, or even put them into second place. Electoral reform is needed. Clegg's wife is yummilicious.

but... the euro?


Should I vote Green?

I cant help wonder if Green is the new Labour? A fledgling movement tackling the crucial issues of the day. Difficult decisions will require a radical, progressive approach.

but... can't help feeling that the LIb Dems need my vote more, perhaps I'll vote Green next time.

Interesting times

These aren't such bad days for your everyday political junkie/footy fan.

It's looking like being a rather sharp election with Brown using all his dark powers to grimly cling to power whilst young Harry Potter tries all manner of spells and tricks to convince us he's for real. It's only 36 hours old but I'm already enjoying this election, especially the way they all talk about stuff that we've known about for months and try to make it fun.

My prediction? Slight tory majority. 6-20 seats.
Out of this world insanity would be for Brown to cling on with a similar size rump, could happen, perhaps.
It looks like being a poisoned chalice with all the cuts looming.




A few weeks after the 6th of May we move south to South Africa!
Need I say more?

My prediction?
England reach the semis (AT LEAST)

Persuasion and voting habits.

Today we looked at persuasion and how people can be persuaded to vote for specific groups or ideas.

Three groups (Purple, Brown and Green) had different ideas for running the school.

The purple group wanted to start early in the morning and finish by lunch. There would be compulsory sports clubs after lunch.

The brown group wanted to slightly alter the length of the day, shorten some breaks but offer a wide range of cross cultural pursuits in an extensive afterschool programme.

The green group would keep the school day as it is, offer more trips and employ excellent teachers.

I consciously avoided words such as 'parties' or 'election' and a class discussion followed about the merits of the various groups. 

After a few minutes we held a quick vote, an opinion poll.

The purples were clear leaders, the browns were next with a tiny minority of children voting for the greens.

Pointing out to the class that this was just an excercise, I then amended some of the group's published ideas. The purple group promised greater choice at lunch, the brown group (second in the poll) offered a one hour breaktime in the middle of the day and the green group proposed to abolish all homework except for the Year Six kids taking exams.

The class went into a mild frenzy. "Can I change my vote?" "What?" "ONE HOUR BREAK??YEAH!"

I assured them that it was just an opinion poll and yes, votes, opinions and minds could be changed. Another fantastic discussion took place.

Another straw poll and then I asked the class.

"The Leader of the brown group is a  bully, would you still vote brown?"

"Even if he was a bully, he wouldn't bully kids"

"Sometimes you have to be a bit of a bully to get stuff done"

A heated debate but the upshot was a completely unchanged total for the browns.

"OK, how about this? 10 years ago on an exotic holiday, the leader of the purple group ate dog soup. Would you still vote purple knowing that the leader is a one time dog eater?"

Fury soon gave way to comments such as "It was 10 years ago" and "What does his diet have to do with running the school?"

"The leader of the green group has been married seven times"

"Was he horrible to his wives or did they die?"

"Loads of people get divorced"

A half hour of fantastic, open minded, open hearted political debate with some of the best 10 and 11 year olds around.

European/local council elections 2009. Zzzzzzzzzzz...

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.



OK, But seriously.

Another day, another election and don't listen to the naysayers, this one MATTERS.

I'll do want I normally do. Ponder the issues, think hard about the comparative policies of the main players, read the manifestos.

Ah, sod it, I'll vote Liberal* like I always do.

(and how can you resist when they have pedigree like the picture above?)

*In all seriousness, the Liberals are the party of Europe, check.
They are also the only party worth a breath against the all conquering Tories, well around here anyway.
Also, I heard their leader on the radio today, he made a bit of sense and wasn't sweating.

A G20 report

Emily Fabpants put together an account of her day at the recent G20 demonstrations in London.

She writes with a quiet passion, an eyewitness with an eye for the extraordinary in amongst the ordinary. I especially like the way she notes beauty in amidst mayhem. I also like the way she gets as annoyed with the SWP as I do.

I liked it, perhaps you will too.

My favourite BBC/election 08 moment.

I love Gore Vidal.
I love the BBC.
Put them both together and you have oodles of brilliant insanity and geriatric shoutiness.

Gore Vidal verses David Dimbleby

Hope

He's not the messiah.

Let's get that straight right now.

But I do feel hope.

I feel an overwhelming sense of rejection of the Bush doctrine. I love that sense of rejection. I love the fact that Bush is being replaced by an opposite figure, everything he seems not to be, everything he seems uncomfortable with.

I love the sense of seeing where things are going to settle.

I'm looking forward to my big run this evening and then a night watching analysis with Frau Random Doubt.

I love the fact that my little boy, the wee hen just left me a message on my phone.

"O-Bama"

"O-Bama"

Gotta love his voice coach.

And I love America.

I like to think I never doubted you, even in this far away, damp and often miserable political climate.

Right now, this just feels great. That's good enought to be going on with.

And I feel hope.

And I like that.

The speech

I'm huddled round my sony bravia wondering,

"Does Hometown count as a forgotten corner of the world?"

4am GMT

I just woke fro a bad dream (no, i'm not referring to the Bush years, although that's true).

The pundits were apologising for the incorrect polls, looking uncomfortable and attempting to explain how they had got it all wrong.

Then I really woke up.

Turned on the telly.

The BBC called it for Obama.

In theory I should now go to bed.

In reality there's those two hours of geekfest and toast.

My election night 3

I've decided.
I'll set my alarm for 4am.
I'll get 2 hours of geekfest before the wee hen wakes up.

I can't miss this, whatever happens.

My election night 2.

Today I talked to the class about the election.
I didn't take a poll but the room felt very Obama.
We looked at the NYTimes website and it's brilliantly geeky electoral map, they kids loved the interactive state by state analysis.

Then they saw images of Obama and McCain.

Poacher kid " Obama is the same kind of party as Gordon Brown except young and black and popular"

Girl with blu-tac stuck in her hair "And McCain is like David Cameron except old and nearly dead and not popular"

My election night.

It started five hours earlier than yours, that's pretty certain.

I ended my parents evening with two of my favourite parents, proper Norfolk folk, my own kind, simple, earthy, with big smiles and rough hands. They warned me about the outrageous and very scary fog creeping in over the fields. That was very nice of them.

They were nicer than the American parent who noticed my new tie filled with little donkeys.

"Democrat?"

After that he let his agreeable and not uneasy on the eyes wife do the talking while he looked through his daughter's books.

The fog was indeed outrageous and scary and it took me ages to drive home. I would have got home sooner but at the Hackford turn I got stuck behind somebody doing 12 (TWELVE) mph. The fog was bad but for f**** sake! This is Norfolk! LEARN TO EFFING WELL DRIVE DOWN TWISTY AND SHIT SCARY COUNTRY LANES IN FOG WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR WINDSCREEN WIPERS IN!! IT'S WHY YOU HAVE HEADLIGHTS!!

The fog seemed to bring out the crowds when it came to the chip shop. When I walked in there were 7 men and a lady waiting in silence. The boy Kenny sorted us all out pretty quickly. When the lady left all the men started chatting, the boy kenny asked me to add up some prices "Come on, you teach maths dontcha?"

Frau Random Doubt had gone to her American chum's house for an election drinkette and girly gossip so I popped into the off licence and the chip shop before getting home to release the babysitter (my mum).


I'm tempted to rise at 4am and follow events. I'm that excited.

Intensity and the prospect of victory.

It's going to be an unbelievable week, which ever way things turn out on Tuesday.

Due to the time difference I will find out the results as I rise on Wednesday morning. It's Sunday evening now, I've been on the go all day taking the toddler out to the beach and to lunch with grandparents and then noticing that toddler isn't himself (he's never not himself, this kid is a pro, he's the hardest working toddler in the business, which throws us through a big fiery loop when he's not himself.) We've put him to bed with some medicine, a lullaby and some hope.

Then it was the turn of the kitchen, long forgotten as we've eaten out and done other fun things these past few days as it's been half term which brings me onto getting my shit together for a big week back at school after a week off which coincides with the election which turns my political junkie head and reminds me that I must read the paper which is still in it's plastic bag since i bought it at 10am.

That's why there probably won't be an incisive post anytime soon about the election (because there have been so many up to now? Right?) You all know where I stand and will have a very good idea about how I will be feeling on Wednesday morning.

I'm going to sit down and read the paper.

Have a good week (as long as you're a Democrat, if any republicans read this, I hope your week sucks.)

An election post

Articles like this scare the hell out of me.

(Describe a Republican rout 10 days before polling? what are you? fucking nuts? Do you understand how this makes me feel? I live within a medieval degree of superstition, as well as having lived through the British general election of 1992 and the gut wrenching disappointment that lasted 5 further years as we observed the government implode)